The EU’s economic and governance crisis is widely regarded as harming Euro-Mediterranean relations precisely at a time of unprecedented opportunity. This is true in many ways, but perhaps less so in others. The need to make EU foreign policy more effective amidst budget cuts and dwindling influence should be made a virtue. The EU should beef up the inert, heavily institutionalised structures of Euro-Mediterranean relations with a set of more agile, targeted and effective partnerships. Starting from specific shared goals rather than from institutions and instruments, such flexible cooperation schemes should not margin alise EU institutions but help to create new dynamics to revive momentum for deeper integration and institutionalised multilateralism in the Mediterranean further down the road.